Anxiety about data protection prevalent

Sixty-four percent of EU citizens are concerned about data protection, a Eurobarometer survey revealed on 17 April. The results show that people are as confused or preoccupied by data protection as they were in 1991 – when the Commission began conducting such surveys – despite huge technological advancements over the last two decades.

A sizable minority of interviewees – 48% – said they believed personal data was adequately protected in their own country, but a mere 5% thought that the existing legislation concerning data protection was “very well suited”. Fifty-four percent, meanwhile, feared that national legislation was unable to cope with the growing number of people leaving personal data on the net.

Lack of information was identified as another major problem. Seventy-seven percent complained of knowing relatively little about data protection. More worryingly, perhaps, over half of people responsible for data-protection issues within companies said they were only “somewhat familiar with the provisions of the data-protection law”, while just 13% claimed to be “very familiar” with this law.

Jacques Barrot, the European Commission’s vice-president, said that, in spite of the less than positive results, he was “convinced” that the survey would be “a salutary lesson for all stakeholders involved in handling personal data and maintaining data protection’.

Over the last two decades, data protection in the EU has faced new challenges and undergone important changes. The introduction and expansion of the ‘single market’, and of the ‘information society’, increased the amount of personal data flowing between EU member states. In 1995 a European Data Protection Directive was introduced to coordinate national laws on data. Yet 13 years later, only 38% of EU citizens believe that data-protection laws allow the free exchange of personal data within the EU, the survey found.

The survey found that, like the general public, the professional community is concerned about the level of protection given to data. Roughly one in two data controllers in private companies said that they believe current legislation is unable to cope with the increasing amount of personal information being exchanged.

Efforts are currently being made to grant greater protection and freer movement of data across member states, and the EU is also currently in talks with the United States about improving protection of data. Meanwhile, a framework agreement, which still lacks the support of some member states, has been drawn up to extend free movement of personal data to the third EU policy pillar, police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.

The survey suggests that the move would be supported by the majority of EU citizens: 80% of respondents said that it should be possible to monitor passenger flight details, while 73% agreed that access to personal information on the Internet should be granted. But most also agreed that such provisions should be made within clearly defined limits.